Word: imperiale
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The elder statesmen close to the throne were men of western ideas, like astute Prince Saionji, who promoted a Japanese version of parliamentarianism and constitutional monarchy. In 1921, with their support, Crown Prince Hirohito decided to go abroad. Never before had an imperial Heir Apparent left the Land of the...
In Europe, then desperately trying to scramble out of the ruins and the many million graves of World War I, the shy, slack-chinned, bespectacled Prince found himself constantly teetering on the brink of sacrilege. In Paris he went shopping and discovered he needed money, which imperial etiquette forbade him...
Hirohito was more successful when he decided to marry for love. Despite the opposition of the court, he chose a young noblewoman, Princess Nagako of the Satsuma clan, which was then outside the strict circle of families eligible for imperial matches. In due time she bore him five daughters and...
He donned the ritualistic orange raiment of his forebears. From Tokyo he rode in a crimson carriage to the old capital at Kyoto. There, in a confident, resonant voice, he read his imperial Rescript, announcing his ascension. Alone, save for two attendants, he appeared, once before midnight and once after...
This understanding did not deter him from sanctifying the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the invasion of North China in 1937, the blow at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The totalitarian forces which had shaped his state shaped his place in it. The westernized elder statesmen and their successors-men like...